Social Security Scotland’s Health and Safety team provide internal advisory services to support colleagues and line managers work safely. A routine area of focus is facilitation of arrangements supporting compliance with Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. Interacting with display screen equipment is a key element of colleagues’ day-to-day work activity.
Ensuring people have safe and suitable set-up, both in office buildings and remotely to support hybrid working, colleagues must self-assess their workstation. Commonly, the outcome of this, or other discussion between colleagues and managers highlights the need for additional physical equipment, local arrangements or other workplace adjustments.
The Health and Safety team rely on access to a reliable cost-effective supply chain of specialist equipment, as one aspect of support and intervention. Internal management information highlights that, whilst the list is not exhaustive, equipment such as ergonomic chairs, headsets with noise cancelling properties or electrical equipment like portable heaters and cooling fans are often required.
To assess the impact of this internal service, and inform a procurement contract to establish a catalogue of items from a regular supplier, this Equality Impact Assessment was conducted. It identified the potential impact for service users with diverse backgrounds, as defined in the Equality Act 2010 and other areas of diversity that may impact our workforce of over 4000 colleagues.
Social Security Scotland - Corporate Assurance - Equality Impact Assessment - Purchase and provision of specialist workstation equipment